A woman loses her dog in the East Mountains. Someone found it, but getting Roxie back wasn't as easy as it sounds.

Earlier in April, Cynthia Sandoval's dog ran off. A few days later, she saw an ad in the Albuquerque Journal that someone had found Roxie. It was her neighbor Kyle.

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"My husband was home, got a phone call, called me and said, 'We've found the owner.' The owner just called, described her to a Tee -- wonderful," said Sandoval.

Not quite, they gave Roxie to someone else, not Sandoval.

It turns out Trini Encinias and William Brown had a pretty convincing story.

"Well good, she gets to go home to her brother and of course, the story was he lost both of them, but they couldn't find the brother right away," said Kyle Theroux.

Sandoval said she was determined to find her dog.

"I called Bernalillo County after contacting the people who took her, and they denied everything so I contacted Bernalillo Sheriffs and they said it was clearly a theft," Sandoval said. "We had pictures. Kyle had taken pictures of the family reunion. So he (deputy) was able to ID them using the pictures and we got her name through Kyle's caller ID."

Deputy Raymond Mackey questioned Encinias and Brown. He said at first, they denied any knowledge of the dog, but finally gave in. They led him to Brown's uncle's house and there was Roxie.

"Oh, I came over that afternoon. She's home. I had to see her with my own eyes," Sandoval said.

Theroux and Sandoval credit Mackie for following up. They thought they'd never see Roxie again.

"Pretty much the whole community came together and we found her," said Sandoval.

William Brown is expected in court, on charges of fraud and tampering with evidence. Encinias will go for fraud and accessory to a crime.